Discrete articles of produce, such as potatoes, carrots and the like, are often processed and prepared for shipment by passing such articles through a receptacle or bag filling and weighing machine where each bag is filled to a predetermined weight. Machines for accomplishing such bag filling are well-known; one of such machines is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,146 issued Jan. 12, 1971. In the bag filling and weighing machine disclosed in said patent, flexible pliant bags of burlap or netlike material are held with their open ends clamped on a hollow bag holder through which the articles are fed into the bag. When the bag is filled to its selected weight, the bag is released from the holder and conveyed in an upright position to a machine for closing and sewing the top of the bag. In said patent the bag closure means comprises a pair of opposed chain lays located adjacent to each other and between which the upper portion of the bag may be held in closed position and in a condition for presentation to a sewing head.
Between the point of release of the filled bag from the bag holder and the point where the upper portion of the bag is engaged by the bag closure means, there is a short distance that the bag must travel. At this location, an operator usually held the upper bag portions as the bag was released from the bag holder and guided the upper bag portions to the bag closure chains. This operator often had responsibility for assuring that the bag closure means presented the upper bag portion to the sewing head in proper position so that it could be sewed. When such a machine was cycling at normal rate, the distance from the release point on the bagging machine to the sewing head was often too great for one man to assist the bags as released from the bagging machine to the bag closing chains and at the same time service the sewing head operation because of the distance involved. The presentation of the upper portion of the flexible pliant bag at proper elevation to the bag closing chains was necessary to provide a snug bag closure in which slack bag walls were avoided and a relatively tight pack of the articles was provided. It is desired that the walls of the bag snugly fit over the contents of the bag to limit relative movement between the discrete articles therein and possible abrasion and damage to the articles.